SCAN: News and resources for Southern California appellate lawyers, featuring the Second and Fourth District Courts of Appeal and the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals

Thursday, April 1, 2010

Is-Ought

It's one thing to have a right. It's another thing to exercise it.

So even if a law professor claims you have the right to impugn judicial integrity in court proceedings -- as Professor Margaret Tarkington (right) does in the Boston College Law Review -- you should consider whether doing so is likely to advance your client's objectives. Questioning a trial judge's integrity is unlikely to persuade an appellate court.